The New York Times, via AP, is reporting that as Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin began the practice of billing victims of sexual-assault the cost of their rape-kits. Perhaps this was just budget stupidity, but it could be worse. It seems that the rape kits contain a morning-after pill that clashed with Palin's strict religious views against abortion, even in the case of rape. And if we go up the would-be chain-of-command, John McCain has consistently voted against a bill pushed by Joe Biden that would make states ineligible for federal funds, if they charge these victims for exams and supplies. Keep an eye out for more on this.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

As the Supreme Court considers the fate of Georgia death-row convict Troy Davis, perhaps America will consider this expert testimony regarding the accuracy of eyewitnesses.

"The conventional wisdom, particularly among non-lawyers, is that circumstantial evidence is generally less reliable than eyewitness testimony. People sometimes say that a case is "only circumstantial" to mean that the evidence is weak. A strong case, according to this view, includes the testimony of an eyewitness.

In fact, contrary to popular opinion, circumstantial evidence is often extremely reliable. Blood of the victim that makes a DNA match with blood found on the defendant's clothing, credit card records that place the defendant at the scene of the crime, and ballistics analysis that shows a bullet removed from the victim to have been fired from the defendant's gun are all forms of circumstantial evidence. Yet, in the absence of a credible allegation of police tampering, such evidence is usually highly reliable and informative.

At the same time, numerous psychological studies have shown that human beings are not very good at identifying people they saw only once for a relatively short period of time. The studies reveal error rates of as high as fifty percent — a frightening statistic given that many convictions may be based largely or solely on such testimony.

These studies show further that the ability to identify a stranger is diminished by stress (and what crime situation is not intensely stressful?), that cross-racial identifications are especially unreliable, and that contrary to what one might think, those witnesses who claim to be "certain" of their identifications are no better at it than everyone else, just more confident...more"

Michael C. Dorf is Vice Dean and Professor of Law at Columbia University.

Monday, September 22, 2008

The literal white sheet has been pulled off of this former University of California regent, and leader of the anti-affirmative action movement. It seems that American Conservative magazine has unearthed Connerly’s get rich scam through eliminating AA. As I (and others) have said, his motives have never been about what is good for black people. And now we have proof that he is not even about saving whites, as he says, but more about lining his pockets with millions in silver coinage, Judas style.

However, I still say his burn-in-hell sin is not in dismantling AA, but rather in being too selfish and stupid to fill the void he helped create, with something that actually helps people in need – be they black, white, or anywhere in between. Denying that there are people facing up-hill battles, serves up greed and division that sentences them to hopelessness. I think AA has to go, but not without replacing it with something that gives a proper hand to 10 million blacks and 60 million whites which the current AA cannot reach. It is this entrenched status as poor folks that nails their shoes to barren floor boards.

Tricking the voters and cheating the system, the way Connerly and team has in the past, is no way to progress to a solution that eliminates arbitrary distinction for getting extra help. Poor folks need to step up, but the rest of us should send race-hucksters like Connerly on their way – as they help nothing, but their own selfish interest.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

In between postings and my day job, I read and write about race. It is those efforts that barely have me lift an eyebrow when a poll, like the one undertaken by Stanford, suggest that Obama is pushing a racial boulder uphill to win the White House.

While it is amazing and a testament to progress that he has gotten this far, we see that this country has a long way to go in resolving issues of race, and with it his campaign for the highest office. Leaps of progress are great, as well as are persistent baby steps, which might in this case have to suffice. Obama’s nomination may be more on par with Deval Patrick’s gubernatorial win in Massachusetts, and may simply reflect the distance the country still has to travel around race. America may be ready to elect a black man to high office, just not the highest office just yet.

Now if the Stanford poll was saying that Obama faces a challenge on issues within his control that would be one thing. However, what the poll is saying is that it is not the man as politico, but the color of his skin that turns off a significant percentage of white voters. And turns them off to the point where they will vote for a white candidate whom they otherwise oppose, except for his skin color.

Furthermore, those whites who can’t pull the lever for Obama are haunted by images of blacks as lazy, complaining, and violent, among others. To vote for him would separate them from these images they live out every day through the disparities they see. Disparities they can only explain crudely and with historical bias and ignorance. Some of that disparity reflects their own complicity, while a good deal of it sits squarely on the shoulders of blacks themselves. But in any case, Obama the man-candidate, and his bid, gets to be today’s vessel of the message that we are not yet ready (perhaps) to declare knowledge of, or victory over, racism.

Friday, September 19, 2008

So here we go again, "Mr. If I Did It" OJ in front of the legal system. So what if the police in Vegas were giddy at the prospect of putting his murdering butt in jail for good. It's the same thing I was thinking when he got arrested with his thuggish buddies over memorabilia, for God sakes. Why should we forget that he killed his ex-wife Nicole and another innocent person. Let the facts of this case fall where they may, but don't ask us to forget. I hope this time the police are not so stupid as to have planted evidence that will let him walk free again. And while I am Friday-ranting, too bad he can't share a cell with Mark Furhman, Mr. L.A. Confidential Frame-up, who is the likely reason OJ has been free all these years, to continue his stupid act.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

I am not a fan of Tim Wise. While I may agree with his analyses, I disagree with the guilt-frenzy he whips whites and blacks into. This guilt does neither group any good, as we live the reversing impact of the demands and gifts that follow. Nevertheless, his micro-analysis of Palin is on target and worthy of exceptional consideration./JC

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action...more

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I just got around to checking out a site that requested a link. Here is what the blogger said,

"Hi I just came across your site and wondered if you wouldn't mind linking to my blog, "Bitter White Folks for Obama" - I'm trying to get the working-class, rural, white, Protestant "Appalachian" demographic (and their descendants, of which I am one) behind him as much as I am able by sounding off from my own vantage point. From what I've been reading about Obama's "Appalachian Problem", this is going to be an absolutely crucial task for the next two months as it may be them who decide where things go (many of those battleground areas, for instance in eastern Ohio are primarily Appalachian migrants to the North)..."

Saturday, September 06, 2008

I have always loved science, but in 9th grade Dr. Guptil looked over his scientific methodology class and pronounced that we would spend 90 minutes proving, beyond a doubt, that Jesus looked closer to me, the lone black kid at the end of his wagging finger, rather than any of my white classmates. I thought to myself, ‘just wait until the folks hear about this'.

It is really pretty simple to ascertain the look of the people of Jesus’ day in his part of the world, what we now call the Middle East. They looked like Africans whose skin was a bit lighter due to the need to produce Vitamin D from lower sunlight intensity. It’s also easy to understand that people around the globe re-wrote and illustrated the bible to match themselves rather than indigenous Middle Easterners of biblical times.

This raises two issues at the minimum. How did skin color change? How could the bible be wrong? To the first, skin color is genetically adaptive to the intensity of the sun. It quickly lightens or darkens as humanity migrates northward and southward on the globe. This adaptive ability is required for humanity to survive. To the second, while the bible may be inspired by God, it was written by men who interpreted its events in their selfish favor, as in portraying its characters with white skin, beginning with Adam and Eve through Jesus Christ et al.

People, white, black and in between who do not understand the science of skin take the depictions in the bible to be literal and a sign of being God’s chosen over others of lesser depiction. While this allows some to feel superior, this feeling is based in ignorance and is the best reason for education, as it relates to genetics, heredity, and evolution.

It's not so much about rejecting a white Jesus I know to be wrong, but rather understanding the opportunity for God's directives to get mangled in the translation.

Friday, September 05, 2008

If Vietnam Vets could present the "Swift Boat" commentary on John Kerry in 2004, it is fair turn-around to consider what similar war vets who served with him have to say about Senator McCain, and his highly touted POW experience.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

So let me understand this story correctly. This Georgia Republican Congressional Representative claims that he did not know that the word 'uppity' carried a racist connotation, when he used it to describe Senator and Michele Obama. And what rock did he say he has been living under for the last fifty years?

It will be hard for me to stomach, but I think Hillary will need to step up to counter the Palin bomb and crap-heads like this that are sure to mount. The Clinton commitment to her party will be put to the real test.

As for uppitiness, many of us, Americans, want to stop the show and call this sh*t out. No can do. Keep it moving, stay on course, no wavering, no distraction. Stay in your game.

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